Typically, absorbent articles such as pads or pantiliners include one or more elements, such as an outer cover, an absorbent core, a body side liner and a peel strip. Such articles are often individually wrapped in a pouch or similar wrapper, or are wrapped as a group of articles. A plurality of articles, whether or not individually wrapped, is also typically sold in bulk packaging, such as a bag or box.
The past wrappers/pouches were opaque and were designed to hide the silhouette of the absorbent article contained within the wrapper/pouch and the absorbent articles were all white. A recent trend has been to use less opaque and more translucent wrapper/pouch materials that are less expensive. However, these wrapper/pouch materials do not adequately hide the silhouette of the absorbent article. This inability to hide the silhouette has worsened as color and graphics have been added to absorbent articles to improve their aesthetic appearance. These colors and graphics tend to further highlight the absorbent article silhouette within the wrapper/pouch.
To address this issue of inadequate hiding of the absorbent article silhouette, some have added color and graphics to the wrapper/pouch material. Often the absorbent article and wrapper/pouch material are designed with similar or matching graphics and color. As such, the wrapped absorbent article now has a uniform external appearance that hides the silhouette of the absorbent article but highlights the silhouette of the wrapper/pouch.
In general, consumers do not want others to know that they are carrying an absorbent article. Thus, graphic patterns that highlight the silhouette of the wrapped absorbent article are less desirable because others can identify the absorbent article and/or pouch from its silhouette. Therefore there is a need for graphic patterns printed on the absorbent articles and the wrapper/pouch that together hide the silhouette of the absorbent article and the wrapper/pouch.